Gann Academy students say #Enough to gun violence

In response to last month’s school shooting in Parkland, Florida, students across the country are planning demonstrations to protest gun violence and demand action by state and federal legislators.

Dubbed the National School Walkout, the protest will be held March 14, the one month anniversary of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. At 10 a.m., students will leave their classrooms to demand that adults, in the words of Ilana Jacobs, a junior at Gann Academy in Waltham, “stop talking and start doing stuff about it.”

“People have been talking about this for so long, saying how terrible these situations are, absolute tragedies,” she said. “We feel we are children in high school and middle school who want to feel safe in our schools. We want the adults to do something about it.”

Jacobs, one of the student organizers of the Gann Academy protest, said speaking up and speaking out has always been encouraged by the school administration. As a Jewish high school, the Gann Academy culture includes a mission of “tikun olam” or “repairing the world.”

“Our school is oriented toward developing student leadership, providing skills to build a better world,” said Gail Schulman, the school’s chief operating officer. “That is as important a part of our mission as academics.”

In addition to putting up posters advertising the walk out, students have been organizing via Facebook, according to senior Ben Schneider. While about 60 students have indicated interest in attending, Schneider said he expects far more to take part.

Talya Lerners, a Gann junior who has volunteered with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said students would hold a memorial with the traditional mourner’s Kaddish prayer, and light candles in memory of the 17 students who died. They will also discuss how to lobby legislators at the national level, and provide information on what they, as teens, can do to call for change.

Reena Zuckerman, a junior, said while the school administrators are “not officially on board,” they are supportive of the action.

“A lot of teachers will be walking out with us,” she said. “And everyone is going to be excused from class. They won’t be disciplined for walking out.”

Schulman said, “This is a student-led protest and we respect that. We are not going to co-opt it into an adult-led protest. The excitement and energy is coming from them.” She added that while the school was not going to cancel classes, students would be responsible for making up any missed work.

“It would defeat the purpose if a school cancelled classes so they could protest,” she said. “Those leadership skills, the ability to make moral choices, are part of becoming an adult leader.”

The students are also organizing for a second demonstration, to be held March 24 in Boston and in Washington D.C. Because the event is scheduled for a Saturday, the Jewish sabbath, religious students would not be able to travel to take part.

Lerners said supporters in the Jewish community are offering accommodations to students to stay overnight so that they can attend the protests.

“My youth group is making sure they are being inclusive of teens who want to mobilize,” she said. “Boston University Hillel has offered to host teens who want to join, so they don’t have to sacrifice their religious practices to attend.”

The students say that growing up in the years in which hundreds of students have been killed in school shootings, has made them sensitive to the issue of gun violence in the community. Attending a Jewish school, where social justice is part of their curriculum, has trained them to believe that they can do something about it.

“I give the credit to the Parkland teens,” said Lerners. “Seeing our peers take action, hearing their voices, reminds us we have the power to do this too. We can build a national movement. They give us hope, all of us, that this is not just an inevitable occurrence. We can do something to stop it.”